The Republican chattering class agrees that Mitt Romney is struggling to break free of a series of unforced errors and missteps. How he should respond is another matter.

In videos published by Mother Jones magazine, the Republican presidential candidate tells a private audience of campaign donors that supporters of President Obama will vote for the president “no matter what.” Romney adds that he does not “worry about those people.”

New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks compared Romney to Thurston Howell III, the wealthy character from the television show “Gilligan’s Island” who embodied for many television viewers the behavior of elitist New Englanders.

Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, whose MSNBC program “Morning Joe” is a favorite of Beltway insiders, spent most of his program Tuesday pillorying Romney’s misstep.

Ed O’Keefe is covering the 2016 presidential campaign, with a focus on Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. He's covered presidential and congressional politics since 2008. Off the trail, he's covered Capitol Hill, federal agencies and the federal workforce, and spent a brief time covering the war in Iraq.

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